Nicholas Welch, left, in court today with his attorney, Thomas Cataldo, is facing charges of murder and attempted murder for firing into a crowd at an off-campus party held by Seton Hall University students in 2010.Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — Nicholas Welch barged into an off-campus fraternity party held by some Seton Hall University students in September 2010 and left with a bloody nose after he refused to leave peacefully, an Essex County prosecutor said today.

“Give me the banger,” Welch demanded of his friend, Marcus Bascus, once he got out onto South Clinton Street, his face bloodied from a fraternity brother’s punch that landed squarely on his nose, Assistant Prosecutor Romesh Sukhdeo said.

Bascus reached into his waistband, pulled out the revolver and handed it to Welch, Sukhdeo told jurors as Welch’s murder and attempted murder trial opened in state Superior Court in Newark.

“He walks back in this crowded party and fires shot after shot after shot,” Sukhdeo said.

Students, who only moments before were drinking and dancing at a start-of-the-school-year get together, were stumbling over one another trying to get away as shots started flying, Sukhdeo said

Seton Hall sophomore Jessica Moore, a 19-year-old honors student from Virginia, was fatally shot in the head and four others were struck when, prosecutors say, Welch, upset at having been turned away, opened fire with a revolver inside the home at 564 S. Clinton St.

Three-and-a-half years after a shooting that shook the Seton Hall community, prosecutors began laying out their case against Welch, 29. Bascus, 22, has pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately.

Blood from Welch’s nose, haphazardly wiped up by a fraternity brother’s T-shirt after the scuffle, link Welch to the home the night of the shooting, Sukhdeo said. Two witnesses who testified today identified Welch as the shooter.

Welch’s attorney, Thomas Cataldo, called the shootings “a nightmare” but urged jurors not to compound a “tragedy” by convicting an innocent man.

“My client is charged with a crime he didn’t commit,” Cataldo said. “This was fueled by a sloppy police identification and a desire to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

The state’s first witness was Cameron Marshall, a member of the Seton Hall chapter of Phi Beta Sigma, a historically black fraternity established at Howard University in Washington, D.C., a century ago.

Marshall said he was stationed at the front door to the two-story home after midnight on Sept. 25, 2010, when Welch came up to the door.

“He asked if I knew whose block it was,” Marshall testified.

Cameron Marshall, left, told Assistant Prosecutor Romesh Sukhdeo that Nicholas Welch brushed past him after he told him that he could not go inside the party on South Clinton Street in East Orange.Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger

Welch lived across the street from the house, which sits near the border of Newark and East Orange, Sukhdeo said.

“We’re students,” Marshall said he told Welch. “We’re here to have fun. We didn’t want any trouble.”

Welch pushed past Marshall, prompting Marshall to alert his fellow frat brothers that there was an intruder inside.

Inside, Welch was confronted by Sergio Suarez, who lived at the house, and several others.

“C’mon, you gotta get out of here,” Suarez told Welch, according to his testimony today.

Once outside, Welch walked into the street and talked with several people, Marshall said.

“I saw an exchange and after that he walked back to the house,” Marshall testified. “I noticed he had a gun. When I saw the gun I yelled ‘he has a gun’ and ran into the house..
After that it was just trying to get away as fast as possible.”

When it was over, he said he saw Moore’s body lying in the dining room area beside one of her friends.